Sally Hughes's Letter

To my darling boy,

One day we will walk hand in hand,
Through the orchard we planted in the park at the end of our street.
Apples will be ripe, juicy and ready to eat.
As we harvest the orchard,
Social connections brighten our mood.
From our tiny food forest we’ll harvest lots of food.

And we’ll make crumble to share with our kin,
In our outdoor community kitchen.
But not cooking with gas,
Cooking with solar, or some other means,
That helps us to keep our precious Earth clean.

Then we’ll sit at long tables,
Our community together,
And share stories of the past,
And the future we want for each other.
The moon will shine brightly as we enjoy our feast,
Following the wheel of the year,
For Mabon and Samhain, at least.

To remember the gifts that we have from the Earth,
Who feeds us daily, through deaths and through births.
Birthing the future,
With our shared ideas,
And our shared labour,
We’ll share the abundance with all of our neighbours.

Let’s stop fracking and cracking our Earth to its core,
And show that we love her by planting some more.
The sounds and the rhythms,
Of each growing season,
Give us all such good reason,
To get back in contact with ourselves and each other,
Reconnecting to nature, our sisters and brothers.

Holding the wild things gently in hand,
Hoping that in the future we can better understand,
The balance of ecosystems,
And that we all play our part.
The beating rhythm of our one true heart,
Drumming together,
In unison beat,
Let’s work to get the word out on the street.

To turn our town green with our hopes for the future,
As we all age together,
Seeking the wisdom of nature,
To help us decide what’s the best action,
To move us forward and help us gain traction.

Let’s reclaim our streets,
And destress our lives,
So all in the present can be nourished and thrive,
With good food on the table and clean water to drink,
Now is the time to stop and to think,
About if it’s all worth it?
The pollution, the crimes,
Against nature in our complex times.

The 5000 cars a day going past your bedroom window,
Make your chest poorly and surely hinder you,
I hope you’ll forgive us, we did our best,
To protect you from the harms caused by the rest.

What will you do, dear reader,
To get involved in the action?
Write letters to your daughters,
Write letters to your sons,
Our Letters to Tomorrow now have begun,
To show us the future we are all hoping for.
And now we must act,
But how? You may ask….
It really is just a huge task.

Get out of your cars,
Turn off your engines.
Get on your bike, and take care of your wellbeing.
Fuel prices may rise,
But you'll be resilient,
‘Cause you’ll make different choices,
And they will be brilliant.
Because you’ve made them through friendships and building alliances,
We’ll get over all these corporate defiances.
No more fossil fuels in this green revolution.
We’ll say goodbye to all the pollution.

Let’s have low traffic neighbourhoods in our city of villages,
Let’s cut down on the waste and the rape and the pilage,
Let’s make the status quo seem impossible to maintain.
The resistance is futile,
We have everything to gain.

Let’s hold hands together,
And gather in circles.
Under the new moon,
With our friends, family and neighbours.
Because together we are stronger,
Together we are mighty!

We are ready for the challenge,
To relocalise our neighbourhood,
Reimagining everything,
‘Cause surely it can be good,
To compost our waste, our grief, our emotion,
Our future together is already in motion.

With clean air to breath,
Fruit trees on every corner,
Co-housing and markets and food forests everywhere.
Let’s make the investment now,
For our future.

Hold back the floods with rain gardens,
And green infrastructure.
We are drowning in waste,
And there’s carbon in the atmosphere.
Let’s use plants to hold it in the hands of the Earth.
Let’s not pick the litter so we see the scale of the dearth.
Then call on the corporates to take charge of a solution.
And hold back the tide of future pollution.

Show our political leaders that the time for change is upon us.
Share what your doing,
With glory and pride,
Know that your actions will hold back the tide.

Tell all your neighbours and tell your school friends,
That our gross overconsumption surely must end.
The future we want is safe in our hands,
We’ll challenge the beasites wherever they stand.
For our hopes are indelible,
Our dreams are made clear.